Next up at the start of June is Battle of the Celts showdown at the Aviva Stadium and Strachan confirmed yesterday he will send the Scots out for the three points and a victory which will not just keep them on course for the finals but also leave Martin O'Neill’s men in a desperately difficult position with just four games to go.

Strachan said: “Any wins are big wins from now on in - that’s for sure - and you have to go for the wins. That’s the way we will approach the game in Dublin, we’ll be going there to win.

“A draw would not be a bad result for us but I have no idea how to set up a team to draw a game of football. I’ve not been with a manger yet who sets up his team for a draw. If it happens then it happens but our intention will be to win the match.”

Strachan’s players took their tally to 10 points with Sunday’s romp while the Irish scraped a late 1-1 draw at home to Poland - a result which leaves them with eight points from five matches.

Now all roads lead to Dublin at the end of the season and the Scotland boss can already sense the excitement beginning to build.

He continued: “People are getting excited about Scotland again and what’s happened to create that excitement is the standard of the first five performances. It’s not just been one performance or two - it’s been five performances which have allowed us to get into this position where we can look forward to the games that are coming up. The players have made it exciting for everyone.

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“The Irish players did their bit on Sunday night as well by scoring that late equaliser against Poland. It means this next game in Dublin is going to be a terrific spectacle.”

Strachan has asked the SFA to fix up a friendly fixture late in May to make sure his players - some of whom will have gone four weeks without a club game by then - are ticking over ahead of the showdown. It is expected Qatar will be officially announced as opponents later this week.

The manager said: “I’m always being asked by the guys at the SFA to plan every training session in advance but I keep telling them, it doesn’t work that way with Scotland. We meet up, we see how everyone is, how fresh they are, how many games they have played and then we work it from there.

Strachan is looking to get a friendly set up before Irish match (Image: SNS)

“All we know at this stage is there might be players who have gone four or five weeks without a game so we have to try to get a game in place for them and, yes, that game could be against Qatar.

“But we will have two different camps because there will be others involved in cup finals and play-offs and these guys will need a bit of rest.

“So we might get the guys who have not played much to meet up a bit earlier than the ones who are still going later into May.”